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Written by Finn Ruijter, 30 March 2022

How do you get more visitors to your website?

More visitors to your website will result in more business and higher sales. At least, in theory. Because one visitor is not the other. Therefore, it is better to speak of more relevant visitors.

So how do you get those? There are many ways to do that. And in this blog post, we list the most effective ones. They are there for any budget: even without spending a euro, you can attract more website visitors. But before you get into that, you want to know how many visitors you are currently getting.

How do you measure your site’s traffic?

Most website owners use Google Analytics to measure their website statistics. This free tool gives you insight into where your visitors are coming from and how they are moving around your site. You can also set goals in Google Analytics: desired actions such as clicking on a particular link. With that, you track conversions.

You can link Google Analytics with Google Search Console to zoom in on what for many webmasters is the most important source of visitors: organic traffic. And so we end up right at the first of the seven ways to get more visitors to your site.

1. More organic traffic

Organic traffic are visitors who arrive at your website through search engines. Those visitors are wildly interesting for two reasons. First, they are actively seeking information and deliberately clicking on your website in search results. Second, you can attract these organic visitors without any budget. Free, that is.

All the actions you take to receive more organic traffic are called search engine optimization. We often abbreviate that to SEO because of the English term behind it:
search engine optimization
. SEO is aimed at getting a site higher rankings for certain search terms. So you don’t have to budget so much for that, but you do have to put time into it. The actions below offer the most powerful results.

Technical optimizations

If your website runs well on mobile devices, loads quickly and is well structured, Google will give you plus points. And those can translate into higher rankings. This is a fairly technical story that requires the necessary knowledge, as you can read in our blog post on the ranking factors of the Google Page Experience update. Many companies hire a specialized agency like 2manydots to do this.

Keyword research

Search engine optimization is all about rankings: positions your website occupies for certain keywords , or search terms. You obviously want to rank well for keywords that matter; keywords that your target audience uses.

But what are the right keywords that your potential customers are typing in? You’ll find out with keyword research. You yourself probably already have a good idea of those search terms, but a keyword research can also uncover some surprises. For example, search terms that you were convinced your target audience was using may hardly be used. You can also discover keywords that are apparently important to your visitors but that you would never have come up with yourself.

Optimize content

With the keyword research on your screen, you can start optimizing your current content. Every page on your website, including every blog post, should have a search term associated with it. You reflect these in the title, in one or more headings, and a few times in the paragraphs themselves. For example, can you guess which search term this blog post you’re reading now is optimized for?

One tool we like to use for optimizing content is Yoast. This is a plugin for WordPress websites. This originally Dutch tool shows whether you over- or under-use a search term, how readable your text is, and whether there might be an internal or external link missing. For many websites, the free version of Yoast is sufficient.

Make sure you have a good internal link structure

Google’s mission is to map the Internet. If your website helps the search engine do that, it has an edge. For example, Google loves internal links, which you use to offer visitors in-depth information, showing which topics are related. For example, by attaching tags to blog posts and dividing them into categories, it is easy to move to more.

Increase authority with link building

Link building is one of the off-page SEO activities that can give your site a big boost. In fact, Google also looks at the incoming links a site receives. If those are from respected sites, if possible in the same niche, the search engine sees that as a signal of quality.

Normally, a good site automatically receives links from other sites. For example, because the blog posts on it are so informative or because the service or product offerings are unique. But it doesn’t hurt to lend a hand to this process by writing to webmasters. You can kindly ask them to link to you, possibly in exchange for a link back, or you can write guest articles with a link back to your site.

Link building can be tricky and time-consuming. The few companies that take this seriously soon outsource this job to specialized link builders. These often own a large number of Web sites themselves in a variety of sectors, from which they can easily link to clients’ sites.

2. Advertising in Google

You read above that search engine optimization (SEO), if you do it yourself, is free. It does require an investment of time. In addition, you have to wait several weeks to months for your site to achieve a stable ranking.

If you don’t have the time for that, then you can score more visitors through ads in Google today. In the Google Ads advertising network, you can have ads shown to people who type in keywords set by you. This is done next to or above the normal search results.

For example, if you are looking for field service employees on short notice, you can show up above job boards in search results through a Google Ad. Suppose someone types in “job vacancy outside sales,” your ad may appear first on that user’s screen.

It should be noted, however, that there is an auction model behind the ads. The highest bidder gets the best ad spot. You don’t pay for a display of your ad, but for an actual click. We call this pay per click and shorten it to PPC. But even then, it’s wise to have an experienced agency manage your campaign so you don’t unnecessarily overpay for those extra visitors.

3. Display ads

Google Ads is not just for ads in search results. Similarly, a large network of websites is affiliated with Google Ads. Your ads may also appear on those websites. Based on interests or search behavior, you can choose to have your ad displayed. The display network is also great for remarketing or retargeting: showing an ad to someone who has been to your site before.

Display ads can be text ads as well as banners. Indeed, through this network you can also place video ads on YouTube and have products listed in Google Shopping.

4. Social media posts

Virtually every Internet user can be found on one or more social networks. This provides unique opportunities to reach them. But before you dive into social media, you want to get clear on what your brand voice is, who your target audience is, and what kind of posts they are sensitive to. The choice is vast:

  • Facebook is the world’s largest social network. Virtually every business, both B2B and B2C, can benefit from having its own Facebook page.
  • Twitter is especially ideal for live coverage of events. Also, this network is good for conducting polls, eliciting responses and engaging in conversation with your target audience.
  • LinkedIn is the most serious network in this row. More than a social network, this is a digital networking event. It particularly lends itself to B2B communications.
  • Pinterest is the place for consumers to find inspiration online. Here they will find ideas in fashion, home and garden and hobbies. Companies targeting consumers can build a loyal circle of followers here.
  • Instagram was until recently the place to share photos, but videos and reels are also among the options these days. If your product or service is very visual, or if you want to attract young adults, it is wise to open an account here.
  • Youtube is also known as the second-largest search engine in the world. Both individuals and businesses search on it for information, entertainment, interviews, corporate videos, tutorials, and so on.
  • TikTok is designed for quick, short videos. In particular, companies looking to reach adolescents and young adults can achieve cult status here.

5. Advertise on social media channels

All together, the average Internet user spends hours a day on social media. Depending on factors such as age and areas of interest, it could be Linkedin, Facebook or TikTok. Once you are clear on which social media channels your target audience spends time on, you can choose to target ads there.

The beauty of social media ads is that you can very well define your target audience. Based on region, age group, education level, activities and other profile characteristics, you can target your ideal customers.

6. Email marketing

Receiving hundreds or even thousands of visitors at the touch of a button: you can do that if you have built a large email list. And before you have one, a lot of time goes by. But it’s never too late to start email marketing. For example, you can use a lead magnet to entice visitors to leave their email address. When you have news or an offer, you can reach all those contacts at once.

7. Promote in online communities

You can also recruit visitors on forums and in online communities. The key here is to be especially helpful; this is an opportunity to show your expertise in your field. Boldly promoting a website does not work. Smarter to arouse curiosity and simply include a link to your website on your profile page (on Reddit, for example) or in your signature (on a forum like Quora).

Do you want more visitors to your website?

As you can see, there are many ways to attract more visitors to your website. We recommend starting with that first option: addressing your organic traffic. For these and other actions, you can call on 2manydots. During a Resultsmatter process, we work with you to determine how we are going to drive more visitors to your website.